If the port of Churchill is a strategic asset then why did the Canadian government allow it to close?

This file photo shows a Canadian military Griffon helicopter flying along the shoreline of Baffin Island. Some are arguing that the Port of Churchill, Manitoba should be acquired by the Canadian government since it is a strategic asset for Arctic operations.Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The port of Churchill, Manitoba is considered by some to be a strategic asset for Canada. It is a deepwater port, the only one linking the country’s railroad network and its Arctic waters.

Yet OmniTrax, the U.S. firm that owns the port, closed it in the summer. (The Chretien Liberal government sold the port to this U.S. firm).

Port employees, along with the local NDP MP, have been trying to prod the Trudeau government into action.

But so far they have had no luck.

Graham Lane, who leads Manitoba Forward, has argued that it is a myth the port has strategic value. He points out the Canadian military left long ago and closed down the base in Churchill. The Canadian Forces, he noted in an August opinion piece in the Winnipeg Sun, is now focused on Baffin Island as its strategic location for the north.

Here is a recent Canadian Press article about ongoing efforts to do something about the situation:

A New Democrat MP is urging the federal government to nationalize the port of Churchill, Man., which has been closed since last summer.

Niki Ashton says the port is a strategic asset that shouldn’t be at the mercy of a private American corporation.

Ashton’s call for action follows the decision last summer by Denver-based Omnitrax not to open the seasonal port this year, due to low demand.

The company has also scaled back freight service on the Hudson Bay Railway line — the only land link to Churchill and nearby communities.

Wheat shipments through the port have fallen dramatically in recent years, with only six ships loaded during the 2015 season.

Ashton says the solution would be for the federal government to take back the facility and establish a port authority to run it.

The government has already announced $4.6 million from Western Economic Diversification Canada for development in the Churchill region, where the port closure threw 60 people out of work in a town of 800.

“We need the federal government to nationalize the port of Churchill, to move to a port authority model where northerners, where First Nations, where agricultural producers are going to make the best decisions for the future of the port,” she said.

“Time is running out. We need to make sure that there’s a 2017 shipping season. We need to make sure that there is a future for the port of Churchill.”

Omnitrax bought the port and railway from the federal government in 1997, under a Liberal administration.

Ashton says the new Liberal government needs to help solve a problem its Conservative predecessor started. “We expect them to be part of the solution, to recognize the strategic importance of the port of Churchill to our North, to our province and to our country.”

Omnitrax has been in talks to sell the port and railway, although no deal has materialized.

The province of Manitoba has promised to look for long-term solutions to help the battered northern economy, but has ruled out bailouts for Omnitrax and is offering no guarantees.

Churchill lies on the west coast of Hudson Bay and is the country’s only deep-water Arctic port, although it has a short shipping season of about two months.

The port opened for grain shipments in the 1930s and handled hundreds of thousands of tonnes annually for decades.

With the ending of the Canadian Wheat Board monopoly under the Harper government, shipments fell as grain went to Vancouver or Thunder Bay.